The present invention relates to the counting and grouping of articles and more particularly, to conveyor systems for separating continuous columns of articles into spaced groups each group containing a predetermined number of articles.
In the manufacture of cookies, the dough pieces and the baked cookies are arranged on conveyor belts in continuous rows which extend axially along the belts. During the manufacturing process, the product pieces are carried in turn by a number of conveyors each conveyor maintaining the cookies in unbroken columns. Cookies which are by nature of uniform weight can be packaged automatically by machinery which counts out a predetermined number of cookies from an edge stacked column and automatically transfers that group of cookies into a package which is automatically passed through a sealing mechanism.
Those cookies which are not of uniform nature are conventionally packaged in two ways. They can be packaged loose in random orientation in either bags or boxes or they can be stacked in one or more columns within a package. The packaging of bags or boxes with randomly oriented cookies is easily accomplished by currently available fully automated machinery. However, filling packages with stacks of cookies, where the individual cookies vary in weight, must be done manually to insure that the package weight meets but does not greatly exceed the desired weight. The normal practice has been to shingle the continuous columns of cookies so that they overlap each other, and to station workers alongside the conveyors to count off and pick up groups of cookies and manually stack the cookies in the packages. The number of cookies designated for each stack was selected so that the packages would normally tend to be somewhat below the desired weight. The packages, still open, are then transferred to another station where a second operator weighs the package and adds an additional cookie if it is necessary to bring the package up to the listed weight. It has been found in actual practice that the operators do not count off the right number of cookies for each stack, the stacks sometimes containing too many and at other times, far too few cookies. The operation at the following station is therefore slowed down. The second operator instead of merely checking the scale to see whether a single cookie must be added, has to add or subtract a number of cookies on a trial basis which can be time consuming.